The Non Gospel of Legalism

Taken from The Reason for God, by Tim Keller:

"If you are avoiding sin and living morally so that God will have to bless and save you, the ironically, you may be looking to Jesus as a teacher, model, and helper but you are avoiding him as Savior. You are trusting in your own goodness rather than in Jesus for your standing with God. You are trying to save yourself by following Jesus. That, ironically, is a rejection of the gospel of Jesus. It is a Christianized form of religion. It is possible to avoid Jesus as Savior as much by keeping all the Biblical rules as by breaking them...The devil, if anything, prefers Pharisees - men and women who try to save themselves. They are more unhappy than either mature Christians or irreligious people, and they do more spiritual damage."

I've never heard it said that way before, but it is dead on. The spirit of legalism is an ever present danger because it feeds on human pride, an ever present sin to be killed. The antidote to pride and legalism as a healthy does of biblical realism. We are wretched sinners, not fictitious sinners, who need real grace, not merely fictitious grace. Thus Luther's words to Melanchthon should be heard (and preached) again:

"If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly,  but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here [in this world]  we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness,  but, as Peter says,  we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It is enough that by the riches of God’s glory we have come to know the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.  No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day. Do you think that the purchase price that was paid for the redemption of our sins by so great a Lamb is too small? Pray boldly—you too are a mighty sinner."

the Truth isn't always in the middle

I am a fairly regular reader of Scott McKnight's blog Jesus Creed, though I don't keep up every day, and he blogs a ton (how does he find all that time). I usually find his posts stimulating and enriching. Recently, however, he has been writing a series of reflections on "The Third Way", using Adam Hamilton's book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics as the discussion starter. Now I haven't read the book and probably won't, at least for a long time, but the thought behind it seems at once attractive and also wrongheaded.

McKnight correctly writes the 'liberal' and 'conservative' are not the only two options. Of course I agree with that. The labels are useless to begin with because they are very relative (in politics as well as religion). To my uncle and all my other fundi relatives I'm a raging liberal. To the liberals I work with on the CaRLA board, I'm a conservative fundi. McKnight, and Hamilton, argue for a middle road between the two. McKnight acknowledges that the middle road between conservatism and liberalism is a hard one to hold too. He says that people complain all the time that this Third Way "muddies the waters. It creates ambiguity."

The Third Way does muddy the water and create ambiguity, but that's not my issue In the first post from Dec. 8th with McKnight/Hamilton's position. In fact, I don't think it muddies the water enough. It seems overly simplistic. If the liberals are to the left and the conservatives are to the right, pitch your tent in no man's land. Ok, but what if you should be pitching it to the left? Or to the right? Sometimes the truth is in the middle gray area, but not always. Sometimes it's to the right, sometimes to to the left. Just as we should avoid totting the party line (whether it Republican, Democratic, Presbyterian, Liberal Protestant, Evangelical, etc.), so we should avoid totting the Moderate party ("run to the gray").

I think McKnight/Hamilton's thesis works at the macro level, but not when it comes to evaluating individual doctrines, maybe not individual policies either. For example, the liberal Jesus, the 'historical Jesus' is a wonderful Jewish teacher who made no divine claims, had a small inconsequential ministry in Palestine stumbled into Jerusalem and somehow got himself crucified. His later disciples deified him in political churchmanship...The conservative Christian Jesus is the Jesus of the Nicene Creed and Chalcedonian Definition. The truth isn't in the middle, it's with the ancient and 'conservative' Christians who continue to assert the truths of Jesus deity and humanity in one person, his life, death and resurrection.

This approach is more muddy because it requires deep thought not only about the gray area, but also about whether there is a legitimate middle ground on a particular issue.

Song of the Week

This song makes we want another motorcycle, several more tatoos, a gnarly beard and leather chaps - ok, that's taking it a little too far.

John the Revelator - Govt Mule

Ever Wonder What Christmas is Like with 3 Boys

Summary: a wonderful mess.

The two oldest boys were awake by 6:30am, though we made them stay in their room and play till Luke woke up around 7:15am. I snuck down to turn on the Christmas lights. We all came down and the boys went nuts seeing the packages under the tree - but before we ripped into the them, we sat and read the Christmas story from Luke and prayed, thanking God for his blessings.

Then the boys took turns opening their gifts. Caleb's favorite gifts were the pocket knife (I snuck that one past Lynn into his stocking) and the PS2 (used). Jakes was his games (Guess Who, the Marvel Edition and Scooby Doo) and his action figures. Lukes, probably his tools.

The rest of the morning was spent assembling toys and games and showing the older boys how to play their video games (Hot Wheels Racing and Back Yard Baseball). No tears when I broke one of the toys putting it together - the Ben Ten Alien Chamber. I was proud of the both.

After lunch, we had sometime to play and then naps. I needed it as I am not feeling well today and either is Caleb. After naps, we begin cooking the Ham for dinner. It takes a lot longer than we expect. Lynn does most of the cooking and I play with the boys. After Dinner, I clean up since Lynn cooked while she plays with the boys.

Then the fun began. Lynn cries out, 'Dan, dan, come quick. Help!" I look over and Luke is puking all over the living room as Lynn tries to carry him quickly to the bathroom. Hmmm. Pickles and pineaple don't settle well in a sick belly. Who knew.

Cleam up and more play. Then baths and showers (for Lynn too since she got puked on). Play and then singing for nightime - O Come all Ye Faithful and Silent Night. Up stairs I get a great hug and Lynn yells at me for being too close to Luke (remember, I'm not feeling well). I hand him off to her and she immediately screams. Whats up? He puked all over her again, this time in her face. They boys are all upset because they've got green puke on their bedroom floor (Lucky Charms after the initial puking episode was not a good idea in hindsight).

Clean up, pray with the family and come downstairs, still not feeling well and ready to crash - but maybe after a quick game of Baseball on the PS2.

Life with kids. It takes a strong soul to survive!

Metallica leads to a spiritual conversation

Yesterday I was sitting and reading in the Honda dealership, waiting for my paperwork to come through. My phone rang - it rings with Metallica's One. Another dealer heard the ring, recognized it, came over and we began to talk about our favorite Metallica songs (he's a bigger fan than me. I've never gone to a concert, he's been to 5). We talked about other heavy metal groups we like, then other genre's we like. I mentioned I like a lot of the music we sing at my church. He perked up and we began to talk about our respective churches for 30 minutes or so (he goes to a AOG church in Bedford and plays electric guitar in the band).

I just found it interesting that a conversation that started over heavy metal turned to the importance of putting God over family, family over ministry and many other wonderful spiritual topics. Granted, this was an easy transition as we were both believers, but it does make we wonder what other topics could be used as bridges to speak of spiritual things. It's a skill I'd like to develop more this coming year.